26 October: Cassini sweeps past Titan, just 1,200 kilometres above the moon's surface, at 16:44 GMT. During its only previous visit, on 3 July 2004, the craft passed about 339,000 kilometres away from the moon, seeing little more than warm and cool patches on the surface.

On this pass, Cassini grazed Titan's outer atmosphere at roughly six kilometres per second, allowing it to sample the moon's dense fog. The thickness of the atmosphere will affect how the Huygens probe, due to arrive on Titan next January, will cope with its rollercoaster ride to the surface. The data collected may also reveal what the probe will hit when it arrives -- liquid oceans, hydrocarbon gunge, or solid rock.

The close shave with Titan also altered Cassini's trajectory so it now orbits Saturn every 48 days, rather than every 4 months. This will bring it into position to release the Huygens probe on 25 December 2004.